Alabama Swimmer Laurent Bams Named CoSIDA Men’s At-Large Academic All-American of the Year; Four Earn At-Large Academic All-America Honors
6/21/2019 11:13:00 AM | General, Rowing, Women's Tennis, Swimming & Diving
Swimmers Laurent Bams and Robert Howard earned men’s Academic All-America honors, while tennis player Andie Daniell and rower Raien Emery were named to the women’s team
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A total of four Crimson Tide student-athletes earned a place on the CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large Teams, led by swimmer Laurent Bams, who was voted the at-large team's male Academic All-American of the Year.
Bams' honor marks the third time that an Alabama swimmer has been named the at-large team's Academic All-American of the Year and the 13th honor overall for the Crimson Tide, and the 12th over the past 12 years. Anton McKee was the first UA swimmer to earn the honor in 2016 and 2017, while Bailey Hemphill was the latest Alabama student-athlete to be honored in this manner, bringing home the honor as the Softball Academic All-American of the Year earlier this summer.
Bams and fellow swimmer Robert Howard earned First Team Academic All-America recognition for the second year in a row, while women's tennis standout Andie Daniell earned first-team honors and rower Raien Emery made the second team on the women's side. It was Daniell's second-consecutive Academic All-America nod after earning second team in 2018.
Alabama is one of three schools with more than three student-athletes on this year's at-large teams and is tied with Stanford for the most first-team honors this year with three.
Unlike the other Academic All-America teams which represent a single sport, the at-large program spans several men's and women's sports. The women's at-large team includes beach volleyball, bowling, rowing, field hockey, fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo, while the men include fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo, volleyball and wrestling.
Since nominations for the at-large team went from a maximum of three men and three women to four of each in 2014, Alabama has led the nation with 32, a dozen better than the next school.
In addition to having the at-large team's Academic All-American of the Year three of the last four years, the Alabama men's swimming and diving program has been particularly prolific in terms of Academic All-Americans over the past five years, with six swimmers earning 14 honors. That total is nearly double what any other school has over that span for all sports combined.
Bams and Howard are both NCAA Champions, All-Americans and led Alabama to a seventh-place national finish this season. Howard is the 2019 Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a finalist for the H. Boyd McWhorter SEC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
A two-time First Team All-SEC honoree, Daniell was the 2019 Female Paul W. Bryant Award winner and twice earned a berth in the NCAA Single Championships. Emery was a two-time CRCA Scholar-Athlete who led the Crimson Tide to its first national ranking as a senior in 2019.
With four making the at-large team, a total of eight Alabama student-athletes have earned Academic All-America honors during the 2018-19 academic year, including Keaton Anderson (football), Hemphill (softball), Kaylee Tow (softball) and Emma Welch (soccer).
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